分析電子平台服務下之獎勵機制 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學資訊管理學系. 碩士學位論文指導教授: 尚孝純博士. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. 分析電子平台服務下之獎勵機制. Nat. n. Services. Ch. engchi. er. io. al. sit. y. An Analysis of Reward Systems of Electronic. i n U. v. 研究生：葉亦宸中華民國 101 年 7 月.

(2) 摘要. 獎勵系統是使用獎勵去激勵顧客購買或忠誠度行為的一種手法。隨著電子平台服務的演進，具動態與成本效益的電子獎勵機制已發展成增加重複拜訪率以及留住顧客的工具策略，例如:Facebook 發行虛擬貨幣去提高使用者的平台參與度; Dropbox 使用免費的儲存空間去吸引和保留新舊顧客; Myspace 使用虛擬勳章去鼓勵使用者達成平台設定的參與目標等等。並且電子平台上的獎勵的形式可從實體的現金獎品到虛擬的勳章以滿足個人勝任感，有別於傳統獎勵方式，然而在電子平台不斷的創新下，目前仍少有研究針對. 政治大. 電子獎勵進行探討。本研究提出電子獎勵分類法，並透過獎勵的動機形式與獎勵的互動. 立. 程度為分析準則，針對 1000 網站排名進行內容分析，進而劃分出四種類型的電子獎勵. ‧ 國. 學. 機制: 物質、名聲、個人滿足和社交類型，後續並針對每一種類型的電子獎勵提出平台管理上的洞見。本研究期望能夠提供給後續研究電子獎勵者研究者的參考基礎和平台經. ‧. 營者實作電子獎勵的建議。. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. .. y. 關鍵字：電子獎勵機制，獎勵系統，激勵，電子平台. Ch. engchi. 1. i n U. v.

(3) Abstract A reward system is a diverse and popular program implemented by many firms in various circumstances to motivate customers’ behavior for frequent and loyal patronage. With the evolving diversity of electronic platforms (e-platforms), more dynamic, cost-effective, and interactive electronic rewards (e-rewards) have been developed as a tool or strategy to retain customers and encourage frequent visits to the platform. For instance, Facebook uses virtual currency to gain user participation. Dropbox uses bonus storage to increase membership and prolong service usage.. 治政 encourage frequent visits. The rewards on e-platforms 大 can range from real items such 立 as cash and discounts, to virtual recognition that enhances self-esteem. These strategies Myspace uses virtual badges to encourage achievement of specific goals in order to. ‧ 國. 學. differ from those used by enterprises dealing with face-to-face customers. As variant. ‧. services on e-platforms have emerged, little research has been done to understand the novel concept and effects of reward systems on e-platforms. Therefore, we propose a. y. Nat. io. sit. taxonomy of e-rewards based on forms of motivation and degree of interactivity. Using. n. al. er. content analysis, we examined the world’s 1,000 most accessed Web sites, then, we. Ch. i n U. v. conducted expert interviews to classifying the 228 e-rewards approaches, discovered. engchi. from content reviews, into four types of e-rewards: material, prestige, gratification, and affinity. Finally, we propose practical recommendations with insights on the implementation of each type of e-reward systems on e-platform services. We hope that the findings will provide a basis for further study on various impacts of reward systems, and provide a guide for managers in designing and implementing more effective reward systems on e-platforms. Keywords: e-reward system, reward systems, motivation, e-platform. 2.

(4) Acknowledgement Frist, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Shari S. C. Shang, who has supported me throughout my research with patience and enthusiasm. I may not finish my thesis without her guidance and instruction. I also gratefully acknowledge many professors: Dr. Ya-Ling Wu, Dr. Eldon Y.Li, Dr. Minder Chen and Dr. Hu, C., for their constructive insights and comments, useful suggestions and valuable supports on the thesis. Their comments made this research become more complete and substantial in content. Besides, I would like to thank my classmates in BPM Lab, Jen Jen Jiang, Chris Yu, Sam. 政治大. Lim, for working our thesis together, continuous encouragement to each other, and for. 立. all the fun we had in the last two years.. ‧ 國. 學. In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, for providing me with the support needed in order to continually push myself to succeed without worry.. ‧. Finally, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. all of them.. sit. during the completion of the thesis. I would like to share the joy and gratification with. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Yi-Chen Yeh July, 2012 Taipei, Taiwan. 3.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................9 1.1. THE IMPLICATIONS OF EVOLVING E-PLATFORMS .................................................... 9. 1.2. THE OBJECTIVE OF E-PLATFORMS ................................................................................ 9. 1.3. THE INTRODUCTION OF GENERAL REWARD SYSTEMS ........................................... 9. 1.4. THE IMPORTANCE OF E-REWARD SYSTEMS ............................................................. 10. 1.5. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE .................................................................................................. 11. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................12 2.1. 政治大. E-REWARD SYSTEMS ON E-PLATFORMS .................................................................... 12. 立. DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF E-REWARD SYSTEMS ............................................ 12. 2.1.2. E-PLATFORMS ON THE INTERNET .......................................................................... 13. 2.1.3. E-REWARD SYSTEM CASES...................................................................................... 15. ‧ 國. ‧. DEFINING THE E- REWARD TAXONOMY ................................................................... 16. Nat. y. 2.2. 學. 2.1.1. 2.2.2. INTRINSIC VERSUS EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION ................................................... 18. 2.2.3. REWARD INTERACTIVITY ...................................................................................... 20. 2.2.4. THE DEGREE OF REWARD INTERACTIVITY ........................................................ 22. 2.2.5. TAXONOMY FOR CLASSIFING E-REWARDS ......................................................... 23. n. al. er. sit. MOTIVATION................................................................................................................ 16. io. 2.2.1. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY .......................................................24 3.1. CASE CONTENT REVIEW .............................................................................................. 24. 3.2. EXPERT INTERVIEW ...................................................................................................... 26. CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH RESULTS ...............................................28 4.1. MATERIAL E-REWARDS ................................................................................................ 29. 4.

(6) 4.1.1. POINTS PROGRAM .................................................................................................... 29. 4.1.2. CASH BACK & DISCOUNT ........................................................................................ 29. 4.1.3. SERVICE EXTENSION AGREEMENT ....................................................................... 30. 4.1.4. VIRTUAL CURRENCY ................................................................................................ 30. 4.1.5. PROFIT SHARING PROGRAM .............................................................................. 31. 4.2. PRESTIGE E-REWARDS ................................................................................................. 31. 4.2.1. RANK AND LEADERBOARD ..................................................................................... 31. 4.2.2. VOTE AND RATING..................................................................................................... 32. 4.2.3. ADMINISTRATOR-ACCEPTANCE ........................................................................... 32. 4.3. GRATIFICATION E-REWARDS ...................................................................................... 33. 立. PRIVILEGE UNLOCKING ........................................................................................... 33. 學. ‧ 國. 4.3.1. 政治大. 4.3.2 COMPLETIONISM ............................................................................................................. 33. ‧. 4.3.3 “TRY LUCK” ...................................................................................................................... 34. sit. y. Nat. 4.3.4 LEVEL ................................................................................................................................. 34. io. er. 4.3.5 VIRTUAL AVATAR ............................................................................................................. 34 4.3.6 BADGES ............................................................................................................................. 35. al. n. v i n 4.4 AFFINITY E-REWARDS ............................................................................................................ 35 Ch engchi U 4.4.1 LIKE .................................................................................................................................... 35. 4.4.2 FOLLOW AND SUBSCRIPTION ...................................................................................... 36 4.4.3 GROUP JOINING ............................................................................................................... 36 4.4.4 VIRTUAL GIFT ................................................................................................................... 36 4.5 CONTEMPORARY E-REWARDS ADOPTION AMONG DIFFERENT E-PLATFORMS SERVICES ......................................................................................................................................... 37. CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION ...............................................................39 5.1 MATERIAL E-REWARDS ADOPTION .................................................................................... 39 5.

(7) 5.2 PRESTIGE E-REWARDS ADOPTION ...................................................................................... 40 5.3 GRATIFICATION ADOPTION.................................................................................................. 42 5.4 AFFINITY E-REWARDS ADOPTION ...................................................................................... 43. CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION .............................................................46 6.1 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 46 6.2 LIMITATION ............................................................................................................................... 47 6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................ 48. REFERENCES........................................................................................50. 治政大 APPENDIX I ........................................................................................... 53 立 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. APPENDIX II ..........................................................................................79. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 6. i n U. v.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Differences between general reward systems and e-reward systems . 13. Table 2. E-platforms service classifications ...................................................... 14. Table 3. Definitions of Motivation ................................................................... 17. Table 4. Constructing a reward taxonomy ......................................................... 23. Table 5. 142 e-platforms directory for content review process ........................ 25. Table 6. Characteristics of participants in expert interviews. ......................... 26. Table 7. E-reward system adoption among different e-platform services.......... 38. Table 8. Capabilities required for managing e-reward systems among major. 立. 政治大. e-platforms ........................................................................................... 45. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 7. i n U. v.

(9) LIST OF FIGURES Four types of e-reward system ............................................................. 28. 立. 政治大. 學 ‧. ‧ 國 io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. Figure 1. Ch. engchi. 8. i n U. v.

(10) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. The implications of evolving e-platforms Not until very recently has information and communication technology become. sophisticated enough to allow more complex customized platforms that enable businesses to offer groundbreaking e-platforms to provide services on the Internet. The diversity of e-platforms based on Web 2.0 concepts continue to evolve. Various e-platforms are becoming more dynamic and cost-effective, making a huge difference in the way businesses interact with customers. E-platforms may be used to provide services such as processing transactions online, building and maintaining virtual. 政治大. communities, promoting businesses, organizing and consolidating up-to-date. 立. knowledge, providing entertainment, and providing access to various digitized. ‧ 國. 學. platforms and applications. 1.2. The objective of e-platforms. ‧. Even though these e-platforms serve different purposes, each of them exists in. y. Nat. io. sit. order to be sustainable and profitable and to increase customer patronage. The main. n. al. er. challenges for the e-platform service providers are attracting visitors to the site and. i n U. v. generating significant quantities of repeat visits (Williamson & Johnson, 1995). The. Ch. engchi. repeat visit issue is partly a function of Web site design (Saloman, 1995) and depends on the extent of satisfaction of customer needs. 1.3. The introduction of general reward systems At present, most Americans are members of at least one customer rewards. program (Kim T. & Gordon.K, 2005). Many enterprises encourage repeat purchasing and enhance customer loyalty by providing targets at which various rewards are provided (O’Malley, 1998). Airlines, credit cards, retail stores, and hotel chains (Kivetz and Simonson, 2003; Kivetz, 2005; Kivetz et al., 2006) have created various loyalty 9.

(11) programs attempting to develop loyal customers who are perceived as more profitable to a firm. For instance, American Airlines offers its “AAdvantage Program”, or so-called Frequent Flyer Program, which has been one of the largest and most popular reward programs worldwide since 1981. Members can earn miles for flying and for transactions with over 1,000 participating companies, and can redeem accumulated miles for awards including flight upgrades, vacation packages, car rentals, hotel stays, and other retail products. Starbucks, a leading coffee retailer, offers Starbucks Rewards, another typical frequent buyer program. With rewards, customers can earn free coffee,. 政治大 The importance of e-reward systems 立. refills, or other products Starbucks offers. 1.4. There are many tactics, such as customer notification, constant content updating,. ‧ 國. 學. and search engine optimization (SEO), that can aid e-platforms in gaining customer. ‧. access, but these methods are passive ways to attract customers. Some reward systems. sit. y. Nat. on e-platforms have been developed that apply various activities to attract frequent and. io. er. repeat visits. For instance, Facebook uses virtual currency to gain user participation; Dropbox uses bonus storage to attract memberships and prolong service usage; and. al. n. v i n C h on users achieving Myspace uses virtual badges based specific goals in order to engchi U encourage frequent visits.. Due to the high speed, unlimited reach, and virtually interactive features of e-platforms, their reward systems, which we will refer to as e-reward systems, can exhibit. significant. differences. from. the. reward. systems. designed. by. brick-and-mortar-based services. Although the underlying purpose is identical—to create and retain customers—rewards on the e-platform can range from real items such as cash and discounts to virtual recognition that enhances customers’ self-esteem. As variant services on e-platforms continue to emerge, however, little research has been 10.

(12) done to understand the novel concepts and effects of various e-reward systems. Therefore, there is a need to provide a wide-ranging understanding of e-reward systems on contemporary e-platform services for designing more efficient and effective customer retention strategies. 1.5. Research objective The objective of this study is to understand different types of e-reward systems on. e-platforms and to discuss critical capabilities to implement e-reward systems, so we propose two research questions: 1) what types of reward are implemented on. 政治大 system implementation are necessary for higher repeat visit? To answer the first 立 e-platform services? and 2) what capabilities or investments of each type of e-reward. question, the first stage is to resolve e-rewards by using content analysis. The data. ‧ 國. 學. used for content analysis was collected from the 1,000 most-visited sites on the Web.. ‧. An expert interview is used to analyze the e-rewards identified by the content reviews. sit. y. Nat. and classify them into a reward taxonomy. For the second question, we discuss the. io. n. al. er. capability for implementing e-reward systems according to the findings.. Ch. engchi. 11. i n U. v.

(13) CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW. 2.1. E-reward systems on e-platforms Before exploring e-reward systems, it is necessary to differentiate between. general reward systems and e-reward systems, and the carriers of e-reward systems exist in the virtual environment, e-platforms, which are widespread and provide different services without limitations of distance, offering services with continuous availability. The following section discusses the distinctive features of e-reward systems and different e-platforms services on the Internet. 2.1.1. 政治大. Distinctive features of e-reward systems. 立. Due to evolution of information technology and the Internet, the characteristics of. ‧ 國. 學. e-rewards have significant differences from contemporary general reward systems. The environment of general reward systems are physical stores, and organizations,. ‧. while e-reward systems are adopted on the Internet and e-platforms. Digitized rewards. y. Nat. io. sit. can be delivered with no time or geographical limitations, at very low or no cost. With. n. al. er. the wide range of customers online at the same time, the design of rewards can involve. i n U. v. multiple levels of interactions, including one-way communication with customers from. Ch. engchi. the business (B2C), two-way communication between business and customers, customer to customer interactions (C2C), and customer to customer to business interactions (C2C2B). The form of rewards can involve different combinations of online and offline formats. The following table illustrates the four main differences between general reward systems and e-reward systems in terms of environment, proposition, reward, and delivery.. 12.

(14) Table 1. Differences between general reward systems and e-reward systems General Reward System. e-Reward System. Environment. Physical stores, organizations. e-platforms, Internet. Proposition. To acquire and retain customers. To encourage frequent and repeat visits. Reward. Forms. Entity-oriented. Entity and virtual-oriented. Interaction. One-way communication. Multiple modes with different stakeholders. Cost. Relatively high. Relatively low. Range of Application. Small-scale. Worldwide-scale. Delivery. 政治大 Nowadays, different types of e-platforms are rapidly evolving due to the growth of 立. 2.1.2. E-platforms on the Internet. Internet and Web technology, making it hard to find a completely generalized. ‧ 國. 學. classification for modern e-platforms. Below, we discuss a few classifications of. ‧. e-platforms by service types and business models, and reorganize these types into a. sit. y. Nat. consolidated classification in order to fit the present situation of the Internet. io. er. environment. These classification schemes include: (Hoffman et al., 1995), (Lin, 2008) and (Rappa, 2000). We reviewed these classification relationships and reorganized. al. n. v i n them into seven categories of e-platform to the seven consolidated C h services. In addition engchi U categories from previously proposed frameworks, we add entertainment services to the e-platform category list, because Web-based games are mainstream platforms over the Internet (Puklek, 2009) and are continuously growing (Klimmt et al., 2009). The categories are listed in Table 2.. 13.

(15) Table 2. E-platforms service classifications. e-platform service. (Hoffman et al., 1995). (Lin, 2008). (Rappa, 2001). Examples. Search Engine & Navigation. Search Agents. Online Portals. Advertising. ‧Google ‧Yahoo. Advertising Service. Incentive Site. Online Content Provider. Official Site. Internet Presence. Online Content Service. Content. 立. ‧Dropbox ‧hotfile. Brokerage. ‧eBay.com. Online Storefront. Online Retailer. Merchant Manufacturer. ‧Amazon.com. Online Broker. Infomediary Affiliate. ‧Expedia.com ‧Hotel.com. Online Community. Community. ‧Facebook ‧Wikipedia ‧Twitter. Ch. engchi. 14. er. n. al. sit. y. ‧. ‧ 國. Online Market Maker. io. Entertainment Service. ‧CNN.com ‧Netflix.com. Mall. Nat. Social Network & Community. 治政 Application 大 Service Provider. 學. Transaction Service. ‧HTC.com ‧ca.gov Subscription Utility. Application Provider. ‧sparkstudios ‧craigslist.org. i n U. v. ‧Party poker ‧Zynga ‧Bigfish.

(16) 2.1.3. e-reward system cases. Before discussing the e-reward systems further, we note several typical e-reward systems that have been adopted by mainstream e-platforms. . Point reward programs on a transaction-type platform: Amazon.com. Amazon.com is a multinational electronic commerce company (B2C). It is the. world's largest online retailer and it also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products. Members and credit card holders who purchase everything on amazon.com can get reward points, and these points can be applied to get. 政治大 Karma reward system on a social networking–type platform: Plurk. 立. discounts or to exchange for other merchandise on amazon.com. . Plurk is a micro social networking site that allows users to showcase and share. ‧ 國. 學. events by words, video, and photo links with friends. Plurk uses karma as a reward. ‧. system, featuring a real-time counter that displays user participation and effort levels in. y. Nat. the Plurk Social Network. When their karma value rises to a certain level, participants. er. io. sit. can be rewarded with virtual functions such as “emoticons” that provide more ways to express their feelings, which could generate more participation in the community.. al. n. v i n Ch Badge systems on online community service platform: Stack Overflow. engchi U. . Stack Overflow is a collaboratively edited programming Q&A platform that. brings together millions of computer programmers from around the world to help each other with detailed technical questions. Stack Overflow uses a badge system as engagement recognition to award their users when they utilize Stack Overflow to ask and answer questions. Users must achieve certain objectives on Stack Overflow in order to get these badges (e.g.: visiting every section of the FAQ earns 200 daily reputation points; doing this 50 times earns a badge).. 15.

(17) . Bonus storage on a Web application service platform: Dropbox. Dropbox is a free online storage and synchronization service that lets you bring. your photos, documents, and videos anywhere you have Internet access and share them easily. It rewards users with free storage in many ways. For example, every new friend you invite who joins and installs Dropbox earns you and your friend 250 MB of bonus storage space. Facebook and Twitter users who post and explain why they like Dropbox will be given 128MB. If a user connects Dropbox to different social media accounts he will get 128 MB storage for free.. 政治大 Defining the e- reward taxonomy 立. 學. 2.2.1. ‧ 國. 2.2. Motivation. ‧. Rewards systems have been widely applied in many areas to “motivate” different. sit. y. Nat. kinds of behaviors. For example, wages or salaries are usually not enough to motivate. io. er. an employee to work hard, so many companies offer incentives as well (Kinicki & Brian K., 2008). Organizations are concerned with how employees can best be. al. n. v i n motivated through such means C as incentives and leadership h e n g c h i U to achieve sustained high. levels of performance (Armstrong, 2006). In the marketing field, various rewards such as cash back and gifts are used to encourage repeat purchases. Game designers use exciting rewards to lead players to indulge in the virtual gaming world (Wang & Sun, 2011). Each of these efforts uses rewards to motivate stakeholders’ behavior by satisfying certain inner needs of stakeholders, therefore, rewards could be seen as a motivator. Over the years, psychologists have shown considerable interest in the study of motivation. However, the study of motivation seems to remain a complex subject, with 16.

(18) different definitions and descriptions and apparently minimal progress towards a unifying theory, but the concept of motivation can still provide a valuable foundation to explain such behaviors as why users habitually rack up points, collect badges, compete with others, and complete various tasks on an e-platform. In sum, motivation is a force which arises with enthusiasm from within the individual, activating the individual to persistently pursue a particular task or goal. (McKenna, 2000; Daft & Marcic, 2008). We list some motivation definitions by many scholars in Table 3. Table 3. Definitions of Motivation. 治政大 Motivation is an inner state that energizes, 立or moves, and that directs or channels activates,. Perspective. Definition. Human behavior. ‧ 國. (Berelson & Steiner, 1964). (McKenna, 2000). ‧. A typical way of describing motivation is that it is a force which arises from within the individual, which activates and enables the individual to pursue a particular task, event, or goal.. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Business psychology and organizational behavior. 學. behavior toward goals.. Reference. Sport and Exercise Psychology. Motivation can be defined as the intensity and direction of effort.. (McCullagh, 2005). Organizational behavior. Motivation is concerned with the factors that influence people to behave in certain ways.. (Armstrong, 2006). Human motivation. Motivation refers to the dynamics of behavior—the ways in which our actions are initiated, sustained, directed, and terminated. (Franken, 2007). Management. Motivation is defined as the force or forces that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action.. (Daft & Marcic, 2008). n. al. Ch. n U engchi. 17. iv.

(19) 2.2.2. Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Psychologists have come to realize the existence of different types of motivation. Two broad categories of motivation that have been studied extensively are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. DeCharms (1968) suggested the dichotomy of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation is what characterizes the different loci of causality. Whenever a person experiences himself to be the locus of causality for his own behavior, he will consider himself to be intrinsically motivated (those behaviors that. 政治大 locus of causality to be external to himself, he will consider himself to be extrinsically 立 occur in the absence of external controls). Conversely, when a person perceives the. motivated. DeCharms’s personal causation implies that the intrinsically motivated. ‧ 國. 學. activity is based in the need for self-determination. A theory that also discusses types. ‧. of motivation is SDT, Self-Determination Theory, proposed by Ryan and Deci (2000).. sit. y. Nat. SDT is an empirical theory of human motivation and personality, concerning people’s. io. er. inherent growth tendencies and their innate psychological needs. It focuses on the degree to which an individual’s behavior is self-motivated and self-determined. SDT. al. n. v i n C h extrinsic motivation, classifies motivations into amotivation, and intrinsic motivation engchi U. according to the self-determination level. If a person doing an activity is fully self-determined, then it is intrinsic motivation. Contrarily, if a person doing an activity is not fully self-determined or non-self-determined, the motivating factor belongs to extrinsic motivation and amotivation. 18.

(20) ‧Intrinsic Motivation Ryan and Deci (2000) define intrinsic motivation as doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence, or doing an activity simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than the material rewards and instrumental value. According to SDT, in order to be truly intrinsically motivated, a person must feel free from pressures with autonomy (fully self-determined) (Deci & Ryan, 1985). SDT posits that intrinsic motivation stems from the innate psychological needs of competence and self-determination. Thus, activities that allow individuals to. 政治大 engaged because of intrinsic motivation. 立. experience feelings of competence and self-determination (autonomy) will be. Recently, a tripartite taxonomy of intrinsic motivation (IM) has been postulated. ‧ 國. 學. (Vallerand et al., 1992). These three types of intrinsic motivation have been identified. ‧. as intrinsic motivation to Know, intrinsic motivation to Accomplish, and intrinsic. sit. y. Nat. motivation to Experience Stimulation. Intrinsic motivation to Know relates to several. io. er. constructs such as exploration, curiosity, learning, and epistemic need to understand. Intrinsic motivation toward accomplishments can be defined as engaging in an. n. al. activity for the pleasure. i n andC satisfaction experienced hengchi U. v. when one attempts to. accomplish or create something. It has been postulated that individuals interact with the environment in order to feel competent and to create unique accomplishments. Virtual environments, such as e-platforms also provide activities to motivate users to accomplish and create something. For example, Avatar is a reward function where users have the autonomy to create their own appearances. Another example of IM toward accomplishment is Stack Overflow, which provides badges as a reward to encourage member’s knowledge contribution to the community. Many active members volunteer to accomplish activities (which often are challenging and with relatively 19.

(21) long-term goals) in order to get accomplishment or satisfaction from the activity itself. Intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation refers to when someone engages in an activity in order to experience stimulating sensations (e.g., sensory pleasure, aesthetic experiences, as well as for fun and excitement) derived from one's engagement in the activity. Users who participate in games or activities to compete with each other could experience stimulation. ‧Extrinsic Motivation Extrinsic motivation can be defined as performance of an activity in order to. 政治大 factors are external. The motivation comes from outside an individual. Extrinsic 立 attain some separate outcome (Ryan & Deci, 2000), which means the motivating. motivated rewards include such things as material, money, and praise from the others.. ‧ 國. 學. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the activity itself may not. ‧. provide, therefore, an extrinsically motivated person will work on a task even when. sit. y. Nat. they have little interest. Contrary to intrinsic motivation, a typical extrinsic motivated. io. er. behavior is not fully self-determined, so the user possesses low autonomy to do this activity, therefore, extrinsic rewards are usually used in e-platform to “control”. n. al. customer behavior. 2.2.3. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Reward interactivity. Interactivity has been widely discussed in various fields such as advertising, marketing, communication, information science, computer science, and education (McMillan & Hwang, 2002), hence, there is little consensus on the meaning of interactivity. Overall, interactivity seems to have been conceptualized around the perspectives of structure, users, and process (McMillan, 1997). In the following section we will discuss these perspectives in order. 20.

(22) The structural view of interactivity suggests that interactivity is a property or capability of the medium itself. Interactivity has been described as the defining character of the Internet (Downes & McMillan, 2000; Kiousis, 2002). Williams et al. (1988) define this kind of interactivity as the degree to which participants in a communication process have control over, and can exchange roles in their mutual discourse. It is about the capability for mediums and technologies to support activities such as one-way or two-way communication, synchronous or asynchronous interaction. The related research indicates that user control and information exchange. 政治大 lead to satisfaction and time savings. 立. are the two key features of this kind of interactivity, while increased interactivity may. The user view of interactivity argues that interactivity is a characteristic of. ‧ 國. 學. individuals making use of media rather than the media themselves (Chen, 1984). This. ‧. view of interactivity focuses on how individuals interact with the media and how. sit. y. Nat. users' individual differences (e.g. the willingness of media selection) are related to. io. er. that use (Kayany et al. 1996).. The process perspective of interactivity emphasizes the roles and behaviors of. al. n. v i n the participants, content of theCmessage, and sequences h e n g c h i U of actions. Hoffman and. Novak (1996) focus on the commercial application of the Web which involves both human-to-human interaction via the computer and human-to-computer interaction. These two types of interactions concerned not only a user trait and a medium trait, but also some explicit content as well as an overall process of the interaction. Hoffman and Novak (1996) identified two types of interactivity in the Web environment: machine interactivity and person interactivity. These two types of interactivity concern not only a user trait and a medium trait, but also some explicit content as well as an overall process of the interaction. Machine interactivity refers to user interaction 21.

(23) with the medium, or the extent to which users can participate in modifying the form and content of a mediated environment in real time (Steuer 1992). So machine interactivity is similar to the structural view of interactivity. Conversely, person interactivity is defined as interactivity between people that occurs through a medium or is unmediated, as in the case of face-to-face communication (Hoffman & Novak1996). Rice (1993) also argues that interactivity not only deals with the medium or environments created by the medium, but also with communicating with other people. Suntornpithug & Khamalah (2010) point out that in the online context,. 政治大. person interactivity can be defined as the degree of social interconnectedness between customers and other participants.. 立. After discussing the various definitions of interactivity of three perspectives, the. ‧ 國. 學. concept of person interactivity from the process perspective is more suitable for. ‧. analyzing e-rewards. Based on our research context, e-rewards are an enabler for user. sit. y. Nat. interaction, and support users in interacting with others. Compared to the other two. io. er. perspectives, structure and user, structure emphasizes interactivity as part of a medium’s characteristic, and user perspective focuses on discussing human interaction. al. n. v i n C paper, with different mediums, such as andUthe Web, rather than between h e ndevices, i h gc. humans. 2.2.4. The degree of reward interactivity. Based on previous discussions, we summarize and define reward interactivity as the degree of social interconnectedness between people that occurs through e-reward (medium) in the World Wide Web environment, and for our research purpose, we define a dichotomy of reward interactivity as high and low. Low degree of reward interactivity emphasizes an e-reward delivery process that may be oriented toward personal with low interpersonal interaction, such as low social interconnectedness or 22.

(24) interactions with the system only (machine interaction). For example, cash back and money are usually distributed only to exclusive members, with rewards not including person interactivity. High degree of reward interactivity emphasizes an e-reward delivery process including co-share, companionship, and social influence that can be distributed among the virtual society. For example, the Facebook “like” and Twitter “follow” functions are designed to satisfy affinity, as a sort of public praise given from other group members. 2.2.5. Taxonomy for classifing e-rewards. 政治大 propose a taxonomy for e-reward systems. The taxonomy consists of a dual axis: 立. In order to differentiate the complex characteristics of e-reward systems, we. forms of motivation and the degree of reward interactivity. The form of motivation. ‧ 國. 學. emphasizes the intrinsic and extrinsic type of motivation for e-rewards, and the. ‧. reward interactivity emphasizes the e-reward delivery process that may be oriented. sit. y. Nat. toward personal with low interpersonal interactivity or can be distributed among the. io. er. virtual society with high interpersonal interactivity. Therefore, there are four possible combinations, as shown in Table 4.. n. al. Table 4. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Constructing a reward taxonomy. E-reward type/ Dimension. Motivation. Interactivity. Type I. Intrinsic. Low. Type II. Extrinsic. High. Type III. Intrinsic. Low. Type IV. Extrinsic. High. 23.

(25) CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY The objective of this study is to examine and categorize different types of e-reward systems on different e-platforms. Based on this purpose, the study includes three processes: literature review, case content review, and expert interview. First, we reviewed the literature to identify the distinct features of e-rewards, and we identified two characteristics of e-rewards, forms of motivation and reward interactivity as our classification criteria. Second, case content review has been done iteratively to collect and examine e-reward systems on various e-platform services. Expert interview is applied to analyze these e-rewards which had been examined during content reviews. 政治大. and to classify them into four types of rewards, defining each reward approach with. 立. 學. 3.1. ‧ 國. appropriate titles.. Case Content Review. The major source for content analysis is from the directory of the“1,000. ‧. most-visited sites on the Web” listed on the doubleclick ad planner by Google. y. Nat. io. sit. (Google, 2011). Before conducting content analysis, from the 1,000 e-platform sites,. n. al. er. we selected 142 e-platform cases (see Table 5) for content analysis according to five. i n U. v. selection criteria: 1) have implemented reward systems; 2) accessible (some sites are. Ch. engchi. not accessible due to unknown errors or specific service access requirements); 3) no redundant services (several sites have same service but offered in different regions); 4) not official sites; and 5) sites are in English. The selection process is illustrated in Appendix I. After the selection process, each of the 142 e-platforms was iteratively reviewed by researchers. The review process ran from January 20 to March 30, 2012. After the review process, we discovered a total of 228 e-reward approaches on these e-platforms, shown in Appendix II.. 24.

(26) Table 5. 142 e-platforms directory for content review process. Facebook. FRIV. PartyCasino. Travelocity. Xdating. Youtube. Livingsocail. Girsgogames.com. Skyrock. Ancestry. Wikipedia. Hi5. Squidoo. WikiHow. Gamesgames.com. Bing. Wikia. Nick. Star doll. Walgreens. Twitter. Hotels. Deviantart. Etsy. 1channel. Amazon.com. Nexttag. Webs. AA.com. Break. Ebay.com. Livejournal.com. Constantcontact. Hubpages. Issuu. Linkedin.com. Slideshare. Dropbox. KAYAK. Gamezer. Paypal. Bestbuy.com. DELTA. Shoplocal. BED BATH &. Vimeo. Flickr.com. Cyworld. Myspace. Allrecipes.com. Beyond. FixYa. Shockwave. Armorgames. Ezinearticles. Ziddu. ORBITZ. BIG FISH. Snapdeal. SOUTHWEST.COM. RYANAIR. SpeedDate. Newgrounds. The Home Depot. Overstock. STAPLES. Qvc.com. TAGGED. Barnes&Noble. Docstoc. Twitpic. Costco.com. LEGO. KOHL’S. Zappos. Walmart. Priceline. Firstload. Wupload. Target. Local.com. Ning. Travelzoo. Miniclip. ShopAtHome.com. Tripadvisor. Hotfile. Partypoker. Lowes. Groupon. AGAME.com. Metacafe. io. n. al. Stackoverflow. Soundcloud.com. er. Scribd. sit. Zoosk. Answers.com. ‧. Vk. Booking. Nat. Tumblr. ‧ 國. 立. 學. Videobash. y. Orkut. 政治大. Citysearch. C hHilton engchi Marriott. i n Argos U. v. NORDSTROM. Cheapair. Veoh Mashable Grooveshark Next.co.uk. Multiply. SamsClub.com. 888.com. Toysrus. United.com. Jcpenny.com. Imvu. Formspring. Iwon. Verizonwireless. Depositfiles. Hotwire. Goalunited. Food. Expedia. TypePad. Sonico. Victoria’s secret. Jetblue. Netlog. AddictingGames. Ticketmaster. Livestrong. King.com. American. POGO. T Mobile. TESCO. Wikimapia.org. Gap. EasyJet. Express Zynga. 25.

(27) 3.2. Expert Interview In the second phase, we conducted an expert interview. A group of four experts. were recruited for this study because of their experience in the management of electronic platforms and their expertise in e-business research. The characteristics of these four experts are shown in Table 6.. Characteristics of participants in expert interviews. Title Professor. 立. 學. ‧. Nat. D. Ph.D. candidate. y. C. Professor. 政治大. ‧ 國. B. Description With more than twenty years experiences in E-business research and ten years of experience in the IT industry. With ten years experiences in Service Management and innovation, Online Behavior and E-business research. Research includes Web 2.0 and E-business, Software Engineering and Quality. And also has over ten years of experience in e-commerce platforms management. With more than eight years of experience in innovative IT Applications & Services, Web 2.0 and E-commerce research.. Ph.D. candidate. io. n. al. sit. Expert ID A. er. Table 6. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The purpose of this stage is to classify rewards approaches into a reward taxonomy of four types. Each of the 228 e-rewards was classified into one of the four types of e-reward systems according to their properties: forms of motivation and the degree of interactivity (see Table 4). After the categorization, we computed the composite reliability of the classification by an interjudge agreement ratio developed by (Holsti, 1969):. 26.

(28) Composite reliability =. N(average interjudge agreement) 1 + [(N − 1)(average interjudge agreement)]. Where N represents the number of reviewers (4 in the study), and average interjudge agreement is calculated using the following formula: 2𝑀𝐴𝐵 2𝑀𝐴𝐶 2𝑀𝐴𝐷 2𝑀𝐵𝐶 2𝑀𝐵𝐷 2𝑀𝐶𝐷 𝑛𝐴 + 𝑛𝐵 + 𝑛𝐴 + 𝑛𝐶 + 𝑛𝐴 + 𝑛𝐷 + 𝑛𝐵 + 𝑛𝐶 + 𝑛𝐵 + 𝑛𝐷 + 𝑛𝐶 + 𝑛𝐷 𝑁 Where N represents number of judges (N=6), M represents number of coding. 政治大 represents the number of coding 立 decisions by reviewer A, B, C, and D, respectively decisions upon which there is agreement between any two reviewers and 𝑛𝐴 … 𝑛𝐷. ‧ 國. 學. (𝑛𝐴,𝐵,𝐶,𝐷 = 228). After the calculation, the average inter-judge agreement is 0.86, and the composite reliability score is 4(0.86)/[1+3(0.86)], or 0.96, indicating high. ‧. reliability of reward taxonomy. According to the literature, score more than 0.8. sit. y. Nat. indicate high consistency of the classification.. n. al. er. io. As a next step, the experts discussed the inconsistent results of classification. i n U. v. agreement between any two reviewers, and reached agreement on the total. Ch. engchi. classification as shown in Appendix II).. 27.

(29) CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH RESULTS This chapter presents the examination of e-reward systems from the content review, and expert interview processes. Based on the examination and categorization, four types of e-rewards were noted by experts according to e-rewards targeted needs as Material, Prestige, Gratification, and Affinity (shown in Figure 1). Each type obviously presents corresponding properties. For example, Material e-rewards inclined toward extrinsic motivation combined with low interactivity. Prestige e-rewards inclined toward extrinsic motivation but with a high level of interactivity. Gratification e-rewards inclined toward intrinsically motivated rewards combined with low. 政治大. interactivity. Affinity e-rewards inclined toward intrinsic motivation with high. 立. interactivity. The different properties of e-rewards based on the taxonomy are. ‧ 國. 學. illustrated in Figure 3. A description of each of the four categories with its approaches in representative cases is below.. ‧. Figure 1 Four types of e-reward system. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 28. i n U. v.

(30) 4.1. Material e-rewards Material e-rewards are commonly used to fulfill customers’ physiological needs.. These rewards are mostly in the form of extrinsic motivation with little interactivity among stakeholders. Customers are usually extrinsically motivated by these rewards in order to acquire practical benefits rather than to enjoy the behavior itself. This type of e-rewards approach is usually a points program, cash back and discounts, profit sharing program, services extension, or virtual currency. 4.1.1. Points Program. 政治大 encouraged behavior is goods 立purchasing. These points usually equate to money that is. Points are accumulated by performing eligible behavior. The most commonly. ‧ 國. 學. exchangeable for prizes in a predefined usage scope. Point programs may have complicated rules to encourage repeat purchasing. For example, Bing search engine. ‧. service adopted a point program that encourages members to “search” as usual to earn. al. n. 4.1.2. er. io. Members would like to search more in order to get rewarded.. sit. y. Nat. points and to redeem rewards for amazon.com merchandise or Xbox Live points.. Cash back & discount. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Cash back refers to cash rebates earned from online purchases, and these kinds of rebates must be used for the next purchase or be accumulated to redeem merchandise. Online discounts are similar to cash back but more direct, the rebate is binding with merchandise. For instance, eBay.com is a popular online e-commerce that implemented a cash back program called eBay Bucks, a reward for members who shop on eBay. They get eBay Bucks equivalent to 2% of qualifying purchases with the credit accruing automatically after purchasing behavior.. 29.

(31) 4.1.3. Service extension agreement. Service extension agreements are service as rewards for inviting other users to join or for using a service frequently. “Trail” is an example of service as a reward. Customers would like to experience new service for free with little efforts (download software, become a member). For example, Dropbox is an online storage and synchronization service that enables members to access their digital files anywhere by using Internet-access devices. For every invited friend who joins and installs Dropbox, both the member and the. 政治大 service extension with a立 similar service is Depositfile. They offer members an. friend will be rewarded with an additional 250 MB of storage. Another example of. ‧ 國. 學. opportunity to get GOLD status for using the service regularly. The status enables them to download files with no speed limitation.. ‧. 4.1.4. Virtual currency. y. Nat. io. sit. Virtual currency is a monetized currency issued by specific platforms that can. n. al. er. make payments in virtual environments such as online game play or purchase of virtual. i n U. v. items. Although real money can be exchanged for virtual currency, there are also other. Ch. engchi. ways to get free virtual currency, such as by completing free offers and activities. For instance, Facebook members can earn credits by joining Facebook application and app games for the first time. Facebook also offers credits for downloading software, linking smartphone apps, and so forth. Entertainment service Party Poker.com encourages members to sign up new members and gives virtual credits to play games free for the first time. The site also offers abundant promotions for members to play Party Poker for free. It encourages some activities such as playing more games or winning a game.. 30.

(32) 4.1.5. Profit sharing program. Once a member become an affiliate of a company, he/she has the chance to get commissions. Customer profit sharing programs encourages affiliate members to refer a paying customer or friends (potential customer) to become new members. Affiliate members get commissions for successful referrals. For example, Document sharing service Wupload adopted a “Pay-per-download program” for members to get earnings for each accumulated 1,000 file downloads. A second example is online retailer STAPLES.com, which also adopted a member profit sharing program to encourage. 政治大. members to refer their Web site visitors through banner links to purchases.. 立 Prestige e-rewards. ‧ 國. 學. 4.2. Prestige e-rewards mainly offer intangible online experience such as prestige and. ‧. social influence. Participants are usually extrinsically motivated by prestige type. sit. y. Nat. e-rewards, with high interactivity with stakeholders in the delivery and usage process.. al. n. 4.2.1. er. io. Three prestige e-reward approaches are noted below. Rank and leaderboard. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Leaderboard and rank are explicit rewards to show off members’ excellent work and competence to drive valuable behavior. It encourages members to “compete”. For example, Answer.com adopts a leaderboard to gain members’ participation. Members compete by answering and editing questions. These efforts are reflected by scores and result in a ranking. If a member ranks highly, it can satisfy his/her need for accomplishment.. 31.

(33) 4.2.2. Vote and rating. Vote and rating are assessment functions of user-generated content. Rating is a score that represents how interesting or high quality the content is. Some members intend to post useful content intrinsically, but they are inclined to get high ratings from their audiences too, therefore, rating is also a direct way to reward by confirming contributors’ achievements given input from other members in the community. 4.2.3. Administrator-Acceptance. Administrator-Acceptance is an acknowledged superior reward that is responsible. 政治大. for sustaining the work of a community. As opposed to a privilege to unlock a reward,. 立. such moderator/inspector (community administrator) status is an additional title or. ‧ 國. 學. rank that grants the power to guide or restrict other members’ behavior, such as granting other members privileges and deleting illegal content published by other members. To. ‧. acquire such authority, members must attain requirements such as editing and revising. y. Nat. io. sit. content over specific periods of time that generates high trust in the community. For. n. al. er. instance, Wikipedia grants authority with titles such as Inspector, a position with the. i n U. v. power to delete others’ edits and records. Stack Overflow periodically holds democratic. Ch. engchi. elections for moderators, who have the power to guide or modify other members’ creations or even to deprive other members of basic power.. 32.

(34) 4.3. Gratification e-rewards Gratification e-reward systems are mainly designed to fulfill members’ emotional. needs. Human beings have the need to exhibit preferences reflecting their emotions in interacting with the virtual community. These emotions involve self-awareness with a low degree of interactivity, and thus are intrinsic forms of reward. There are a few types of emotional rewards that represent the typical case of gratification e-rewards: virtual avatars, completionism, and “try luck.” 4.3.1. Privilege unlocking. 政治大 community, such as the ability 立to create chat rooms or groups, to collaborate in editing,. Privilege unlocking rewards are designed to add members’ basic functions in the. ‧ 國. 學. to comment everywhere, or to open votes. For instance, programming peer community Stack Overflow uses reputation points to award members new privileges. The more. ‧. reputation points one earn, the more privileges are gained, such as the ability to retag. sit. n. al. er. io. 4.3.2 Completionism. y. Nat. members’ questions, to vote up and down, to create chat rooms, and so on.. i n U. v. Completionism is a concept and strategy that uses a series of collectable gadgets to. Ch. engchi. satisfy members’ collecting needs. Such members wish to form complete collections of virtual items. Thus, members are often encouraged to revisit or participate repeatedly in order to collect exclusive awards; these awards usually have no value other than their collection value for the member. For instance, Miniclips and Zynga offer many webgames, most of which offer collectable virtual items. Some members try to play more frequently in order to collect these virtual items. LinkedIn’s “progress bar” is a status reward that attracts some members to update their personal information completely. 33.

(35) 4.3.3 “Try Luck” “Try Luck” is an experience and random reward schedule aimed at helping members have fun and feel surprise rather than focusing on the prize itself. For example, members could have the chance to experience luck through a drawing, bingo, a lottery, or other game-playing activities. For instance, Zynga’s Web game FarmVille uses a random reward scheme to encourage players to return and play more, such as continuing to reap vegetables in order to have the chance to win mysterious prizes. Players are inclined to return because they enjoy surprises and feel joy at experiencing luck.. 立. 4.3.4 Level. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Level is a common way to confirm members’ achievement of behaviors or to encourage behavior by giving various amounts of points. Level is also an indication. ‧. that users have reached a milestone, since levels are often defined at certain point. y. Nat. io. sit. thresholds. Users can automatically level up, based on their participation. For instance,. n. al. er. entertainment services such as Miniclip and Zynga adopt level systems in numerous. i n U. v. Web games. Some players vigorously pursue these games to earn abundant experience. Ch. engchi. in order to gain high levels and satisfy their achievement needs. 4.3.5 Virtual Avatar An avatar is a virtual figure that a member creates to represent him- or herself online, reflecting the emotion of the member. Members can give their avatars a unique appearance by changing their attributes or accessories. For example, Stardoll is a social entertainment service that gives members the opportunity to create their own avatars and thus fulfill their self-expression need. Cyworld mini-apartments also offer virtual. 34.

(36) avatars and gadgets to let members express their emotion and unique style within the community. 4.3.6 Badges Both in the real and virtual world, badges, medals, and trophies can be used to reward excellent work. They are visible recognition of completed challenges and activities. For instance, the Myspace and Orkut social networking sites reward members with different badges for participation in activities such as trying out various features and achieving excellent work. 4.4 Affinity e-rewards. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Affinity e-rewards are designed to facilitate relationship building between participants within the virtual community. This addresses the human needs for love,. ‧. affection, and acceptance by belonging to a group. This type of reward design is mainly. sit. y. Nat. intrinsic in that customers and members are motivated by being liked, followed, invited,. n. al. i n U. public praise, subscription, group joining, or virtual gifts. 4.4.1 Like. Ch. engchi. er. io. and consulted by other customers and members. This type of reward is usually given as. v. Like is a simple relatedness reward that can be received from and given to others. Members usually need to receive positive praise or to be liked in a group. For instance, YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook are virtual communities that enable users to generate content on the site. Members share interesting content continuously because they want to be praised or get affirmative words.. 35.

(37) 4.4.2 Follow and Subscription Although “follow” and “subscription” are convenient functions designed for members to easily focus on specific content types, they also can be affinity rewards because of the status that accrues when a member is paid attention to by others. For instance, Twitter adopted the “follow” button, enabling members to follow favorite content generated by the followee, while the followee’s profile shows how many followers he or she has.. 政治大 Almost all online communities have various groups in which members can 立. 4.4.3 Group joining. ‧ 國. 學. participate. Group invitations can be seen as affinity reward that satisfies a member’s need to belong to a group. To join some groups, members must have qualifications or. ‧. achieve specific behaviors. For example, deviantART is an art-related social. sit. y. Nat. community that offers group creation. Group administrators can set qualifications for. al. n. 4.4.4 Virtual gift. er. io. members to join the group.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Virtual gift rewards are mainly designed to increase positive relationships with the member. Members can receive and send special virtual gifts to their friends, most of which are non-monetary. These gifts can facilitate interaction and satisfy the altruism need. For example, entertainment services such as Zynga and Stardoll and social networking site Cyworld offer virtual gifts for those who want to show positive thoughts toward their friends or members.. 36.

(38) 4.5 Contemporary e-rewards adoption among different e-platforms services After analyzing and categorizing different e-reward approaches, we present e-rewards adoption situations among different e-platforms services (see Table 4), while the contemporary e-platform service classifications are summarized in Table 1. According to the findings, there are total five types of e-platforms services adopted e-reward systems based on 142 e-platform sampling data which include Search Engine and Navigation, SNS and Community, Application Provider,. 政治大 According to the findings, Search Engine and Navigation e-platforms only 立. Transaction, and Entertainment.. adopted Material type e-reward (Type1), and use point program exclusively, however. ‧ 國. 學. there is not sufficient evidence to support this statement due to the small number of. ‧. cases of Search Engine services. Social network and Community e-platforms adopted. sit. y. Nat. all types of e-rewards (Types 1, 2, 3, 4), and use Affinity e-rewards as the primary. io. er. strategy to gain repeat visits. Application Provider e-platforms adopted all types of e-rewards (Types 1, 2, 3, 4), but they use Material e-rewards the most. Transaction. al. n. v i n C htype e-reward (TypeU1), the primary e-reward e-platforms only adopted Material engchi. approaches are Cash back and Discount, Point Programs, and Profit Sharing Programs. Entertainment e-platforms adopted Material, Prestige and Gratification e-rewards (Type 1, 2, 3), and they use Gratification e-rewards as their main rewarding approach.. 37.

(39) E-reward system adoption among different e-platform services. e-reward categories. Type1 (Material). Search Engine and Navigation (1) SNS and Community (49). ‧Point Programs (1) ‧Badge (10) ‧Completionism (4) ‧Level (3) ‧Privilege Unlock (4) ‧Avatar (3). ‧Follow (16) ‧Like (16) ‧Virtual Gift (5) ‧Group Join (5). ‧. io. ‧Cash Back & Discount (41) ‧Point Program (17) ‧Profit sharing Program (9). y. n. al. Entertainment (20). Ch. ‧Virtual Currency (8) ‧Point Program (1) ‧Profit sharing program (1). ‧Follow(3). (1) ‧Badge (1) ‧Leaderboard (1) ‧Manager (1). Nat. Transaction (58). ‧Leaderboard (7) ‧Vote & Rating (5) ‧Administrator -Acceptance (3). 治政 ‧Vote & Rating 大‧Level (1). ‧ 國. 立. Type4 (Affinity). 學. ‧Service Extension (5) ‧Cash Back (1) ‧Point Program (1) ‧Profit sharing program (6). Type3 (Gratification). sit. Application Provider (14). ‧Virtual Currency (9) ‧Service Extension (1) ‧Profit sharing program (1). Type 2 (Prestige). er. Table 7. engchi ‧Leaderboard (13). i n U. v. ‧Try Luck (5) ‧Level (5) ‧Completionism (4) ‧Avatar (5) ‧Badge (5). ※ Grids in gray represent the most e-reward approaches adopted by specific e-platforms (row) ※ The number in the parentheses represents the quantity of e-reward approaches adopted by specific e-platform services samples. 38.

(40) CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION. In order to implement and maintain the above-mentioned e-reward approaches two kinds of capabilities are required. The first kind is about the design of the extrinsic or intrinsic motivation to attract user attention and participation. The other kind of capability is about the design and management of the interaction with and among users. Different type of e-rewards would require certain critical capabilities to manage the system.. 治政 5.1 Material e-rewards adoption 大立 ‧ 國. 學. Material e-rewards are likely to have high compatibility and practical value to enhance customer retention within the five types of e-platforms. In our findings,. ‧. transaction service introduced the most material e-rewards, followed by application. sit. y. Nat. providers. However, in transaction services, Cash back & Discount and Point. al. er. io. programs seems to be the primary material e-reward approaches to encourage online. v. n. patronage, such as B2C walmart.com which adopted “value of the day”, a daily. Ch. engchi. i n U. promotion with exclusive prices. Bestbuy.com adopted a point program that encourages members to purchase more. These rewards involve system interaction rather than person interactivity. It is critical for the platform manager to have a clear and close understanding of customer behavior, because customers have different preferences toward merchandise and price acceptance, they are extrinsically motivated by different feedback. To solve this problem buyer behavior analysis is conducted in order to provide personal reward customization through analyzing multidimensional customer data such as frequency of visits, purchasing volumes, price sensitivity, and transaction time to schedule 39.

(41) dynamic reward plans for segmented customers. For instance, we can offer reward points and discounts for less popular merchandise and select what material is more attractive to use to reward customers. We can also make decisions on what segmented customers should be rewarded most and how frequently. In sum, the plan can raise the effectiveness of material e-rewards usage and reduce resource consumption. In addition, a material type of reward would require careful budget and cost planning. It presents the critical factor toward feasibility of reward programs, especially on material e-rewards. To implement material e-rewards successfully,. 政治大 items may include software development at the beginning, continuous rewards 立 project funding and cost are critical issues for sustaining such programs. The cost. purchasing, and delivery, manpower and so on.. ‧ 國. 學. Through measuring the revenue earned from e-reward programs and total program. ‧. spending, we can evaluate the success of material reward implementation more easily.. Nat. er. io. sit. y. 5.2 Prestige e-rewards adoption. As we can see in the table, among Prestige e-rewards adopted for SNS &. al. n. v i n C h and Entertainment Community, Application Providers, services, Social networks & engchi U. Community not only adopted the most types of Prestige e-rewards approaches, but. also represents the highest number of such programs. The three reward approaches, leaderboard, vote & ratings, and administrator acceptance, offer immaterial online experience such as prestige and social influence through reaching various activities. However, prestige e-rewards often imply competition and encourage participants to achieve valuable behaviors. The core value, prestige, is evaluated by the whole community, so the reward mechanism requires Person interaction functions. We give brief cases of reward approaches adoption on SNS & community, including 40.

(42) leaderboard, vote & ratings, and administrator acceptance. First, Leaderboard is the most popular prestige reward approach for SNS & Community. A popular dating social network, Zoosk, uses a leaderboard-like function (Popular Rank) to indicate member’s fame in the community. Some members would like to devoted themselves to the pursuit fame by participating in more social activities than others. Second, an example of Vote & Ratings is wikiHow, a Q&A knowledge contribution community. It uses rating functions to encourage participants to contribute more (good answers, questions and edits) to the community, thus getting. 政治大 member twice a year. The chosen members are acknowledged to have a high trust and 立 high prestige. Besides, wikiHow.com elects community administrators from active. prestige within the community, as they are responsible for sustaining community.. ‧ 國. 學. Therefore, to implement these kinds of e-rewards into SNS & Community. ‧. services successfully, they must plan an activity scheme, a scheme to determine. sit. y. Nat. members’ contribution that not only matters to online participants but also serves to. io. er. sustain the community with clear rules of achievement. These requirements could be done through survey, or conducting a pilot test, before designing challenging,. n. al. Ch. attractive, and achievable activities for participants.. engchi. i n U. v. Emphasizing the value of admitted contributions is important. In addition to the potential benefits from activity itself, encouraging behaviors must be perceived as worth being achieved in public, so these behaviors must have the possibility to be praised by whole community. Managers must design and develop public evaluation mechanisms that can assure those achieved behaviors can be publicly recognized. Lastly, the key asset to sustain these e-rewards is a sufficient member base. Because these memberships play important roles in attracting more members and motivate others to obtain prestige from them, membership is the major source of 41.

(43) prestige value. Therefore, mangers must take the member base into account before they start considering how to integrate prestige e-rewards into their e-platforms. 5.3 Gratification adoption Gratification e-rewards are adopted on SNS and Community, Application Provider, and Entertainment Service. However, Entertainment Service adopted the most types of e-rewards among above-mentioned e-platforms services, followed by SNS & Community. These e-reward approaches include Try luck, Level system,. 政治大 released many Web games with various game mechanisms that could be perceived as 立. Completionism, Avatar, and Badges. For example, popular Web game service, Zynga,. rewards. They usually reward virtual items by random for player login behavior,. ‧ 國. 學. approve player’s accomplishments by level system and virtual badges, and offer. ‧. avatars for players to enable self-expression behaviors, and provide collectable. y. Nat. gadgets for satisfying completionism (a personality similar to perfectionism). In. er. io. sit. summary, these e-rewards approaches allow individual player to “experience” such various diversity atmospheres as competence, curiosity, fun, excitement, and. n. al. self-expression.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. To implement and maintain Gratification e-rewards into Entertainment and other non-gamelike e-platform services successfully and to make e-platforms more engaging and fun, it is first necessary to understand the underlying motivations and personality types of user. It is recommended to conduct in-depth survey and interview to identify their motivations and personalities that influence their preference toward online behavior, to segment user with titles based on their personality. (e.g.: curious type, achievement type, stimulation type), then to map to proper reward designs that can fulfill corresponding needs. 42.

(44) After making decisions on what reward designs can satisfy users’ needs, the other concern is how to motivate users to use over time. Attraction is an important point of reward design. In addition to the attraction of content itself, the direct way to draw user’s attention is to enhance the design of graphical user interface, because gratification e-rewards do not involve high person interactivity but highly depends on the interaction with the interface, so instant feedback and processing are critical to support gratification reward mechanisms. 5.4 Affinity e-rewards adoption Affinity e-rewards. 政治大 are adopted by SNS and Community and 立. Application. Providers. Between these two types of services, SNS and Community adopted the. ‧ 國. 學. most e-reward approaches, such as like and follow. For example, Social networks. ‧. Facebook and Orkut use like buttons not only let users share their favorite content. sit. y. Nat. with the community, but also to give a simple positive feedback to the original. io. er. publisher. These e-reward approaches enable participants to give positive feedback to others, with the capability to facilitate the relationship between two participants or. al. n. v i n with the community as a whole.CTwitter or Youtube adopted h e n g c h i U follow (or subscription). that enable members to follow favorite content generated by the followee, while the. followee’s profile shows how many followers he or she has, as the followers pay attention to the followees . In order to implement Affinity e-rewards the platform manager would need to analyze user behavior toward interpersonal communication, and what kinds of interactive forms do participants tend to use. Such as verbal and non-verbal interaction, continuity or short-period interaction, it is critical to analyze online interpersonal behavior for designing effective affinity e-rewards. 43.

(45) The second concern is about autonomy. Such interpersonal behaviors enabled by affinity e-rewards are almost intrinsic motivated by users, thus they are fully self-determined to action. In order to continue their spontaneity to interact, there is a need to offer user content generation capability, because interaction is initiated by the public and interesting content, it must allow contributors to initiate, respond, update, and delete the content whenever they want, while deploying a complete privacy mechanisms to ensure they have full authority to control their contributions. Lastly, providing satisfied positive experiences is essential for retaining. 政治大 feedback and interactive interface aspects. Affinity rewards should provide intuitive 立. participants. The positive experience can either be enhanced or undermined by. and ease of use interactive interface, with real-time response performance for creating. ‧ 國. 學. a good experience of interpersonal communication in virtual environments, to. ‧. simulate face-to-face dialogue.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 44. i n U. v.

(46) Table 8. Capabilities required for managing e-reward systems among major. e-platforms Prestige. Gratification. Affinity. 1.Transaction Service 2. Application Provider. 1.Social Network & Community 2.Entertainment Service. 1. Entertainment service 2. Social Network & Community. 1. Social Network & Community 2. Application provider. Primary reward approaches (Motivator). Intrinsic Level system Follow Badge Like Avatar Try luck Completionism (High) (Low) (High) Accompany with Satisfy Address competitions, public player’s(individual) participant’s praise, elections activities needs to need for love, among participants. know(curiosity), affinity, to be accomplishment ,paly liked with fun, and stimulation. Prestige Activity Plan Examination of user Interpersonal personality behavior Public evaluation analysis mechanisms Graphical interface design User content Sufficient member base generate Instant feedback and capability (Opt reward processing in/ out). 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Cash back& discount Point program Reward (Low) Interactivity Deliver and reward through systems, do not involve person interactivity Capabilities Buyer required for behavior managing the analysis reward Program Budget and cost estimation. Extrinsic Leaderboard Rating Administrator-Acceptan ce. io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. Major e-platforms. Material. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.  Privacy mechanisms Ease of use interactive interface with real-time response. 45.

(47) CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION. 6.1 Summary A wide-ranging understanding of e-reward systems on contemporary e-platform services is necessary for designing more efficient and effective customer retention strategies. We proposed two research questions: 1) what types of reward are implemented on e-platform services? and 2) what capabilities or investments of each type of e-reward system implementation are necessary for higher repeat visit? For the. 政治大. first question, we intend to resolve e-reward system through literature review, content. 立. analysis, and expert interview, then we propose a validated taxonomy for describing. ‧ 國. 學. complex and dynamic e-reward approaches among different types of e-platforms based on a two criteria: type of motivation and reward interactivity. The taxonomy. ‧. identifies four types of e-reward categories with different motivation and interactivity. y. Nat. sit. appeal: Material, Prestige, Gratification, and Affinity e-rewards.. For the second. n. al. er. io. question, we discuss prominent adoption requirements of each type of e-rewards base. i n U. v. on their motivation, interaction designs, then propose practical recommendations with. Ch. engchi. insights on the implementation of each type of e-reward systems on e-platform services. These findings can facilitate the design of e-reward systems on various e-platforms by asking such question as: what type of e-rewards could be put in our considerations? and what capabilities or investments should we implement first for higher customer retention of e-platforms services when implementing specific types of e-rewards? We hope that the findings will provide a basis for further study on various impacts of reward systems and provide a guide for managers in designing and implementing more effective reward systems on e-platform services.. 46.